The meaning of the May ‘victory’

Left Unity Principal Speaker, Felicity Dowling, writes:

The Conservative leadership election has ended abruptly with a walk-over for Theresa May.

Brexit has brought a change of leader to the Conservative Party.  But it won’t make life any better for working people.  Irrespective of who the Conservative leader is, let’s make no mistake – they represent a ruling class cartel, they advance the neo-liberal project which is taking wealth from the state institutions, and thereby from the poor, in the interests of the very rich. Austerity is part of their project, and we’re not fooled by Osborne’s apparent retreat from it.

The situation for working class communities in the UK is utterly disgraceful. Poverty is killing people.

Austerity is causing real harm to our communities. Austerity has caused the biggest rise in the UK death rate for fifty years. The poorest in society are subject to low pay, sanctions and food banks. Pay has risen since the crash more slowly than in any country in Europe except Greece. The quality of employment has got worse. Housing has become a great monopoly game for the very rich whilst ever more people have to pay exorbitant rents and mortgages and homelessness grows.

The Conservative project of taking money from the state is successful for the rich but not for the services subject to privatisation. Monetary policy also has benefited the very rich. Quantitative easing has made the very rich even richer.  In 2012 the Bank of England announced that Britain’s richest 5% gained most from quantitative easing: “The richest 10% of households in Britain have seen the value of their assets increase by up to £322,000”. The system has not changed. The Bank of England “intervening” in the market still means buying stuff the elite want to sell, to stop them losing money.  Despite this largesse and charity for the rich, the economy is far from healthy, Investment still falters and huge companies hold nearly as much cash as the banks. The pound is still in trouble.

The speed with which the Tories overcame their post-Brexit crisis is a salutary lesson about the ruling class – they will exercise ruthless control to assert their own interests. They were not going to be politically derailed by the leadership contest once it was clear to all that Leadsom was a liability. The outcome, with a potentially stable leadership with the supposedly credible and experienced Theresa May, could see the Tories in a much improved electoral situation. This is deeply serious for those of us wishing to protect working class communities for May’s leadership will be an opportunity to further roll back the state and assert the free market – in spite of the extraordinary damage these policies are inflicting on our society.

The free-market think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, made this abundantly clear in its post-Brexit analysis: “The weakness of the Labour party and the resolution of the EU question have created a unique political opportunity to drive through a wide-ranging … revolution on a scale similar to that of the 1980s … This must include removing unnecessary regulatory burdens on businesses, such as those related to climate directives and investment fund[s].”

Left Unity, as well as the TUC and others on the left, warned of this danger during the referendum campaign.

We would do well to look at what has happened to the poor in the USA in recent decades where a similar approach applies. This is what we may well be facing. Many live on less than two dollars a day, health care is still the major cause of bankruptcy, environmental protection is negligible. Racism and brutality are rampant. There are no federal rules on maternity leave and many women go back to work still bleeding from childbirth. Child care is haphazard yet parents must work. The great gains of the 1970s which saw “middle class” America as comfortable and secure have been wiped out. Unions had become moribund or corrupt but are now beginning to grow again to attempt to deal with the terrible situation ordinary people face in their daily lives.

And the drive towards a US situation continues here apace. We face still more cuts to the NHS and the Footprints project is attempting further massive cut backs. Across the country NHS defence groups are fighting to defend hospitals and services from closure. Few hospitals are “managing” their budget and smear campaigning attempts to reduce the public support. Further damage is done by the day to day shortages and overwork of NHS staff. There is a major shortage of nurses yet nurses in training, even with bursaries have little to live on, and even these bursaries are being withdrawn. Day to day life for nurses in the NHS is increasingly fraught and exhausting.

But the real intention is clear. The NHS is being diced up and served to for-profit providers. On July 9th in the House of Lords they quietly announced “an inquiry into whether the NHS should be paid for in future through user charges and insurance, not through tax.”

Local Authority funding has been cut most in the areas of greatest poverty. Yet very little of this is reported in the press or in the media. Stories appear and sink into obscurity. Only the campaigners raise the profile and keep the links going. Housing is a national scandal with landlords making money from the council houses once sold to their tenants. Again, only the campaigners keep this problem in the public eye as a political and social issue rather than just a personal crisis.

Left Unity supports the working class in their struggle against the attacks that are now being forced upon them, that will only escalate and worsen. We stand foursquare with Jeremy Corbyn in his attempts to end austerity. The plot against him by members of his own party only strengthens the Tories. It is an act of betrayal of ordinary people that will never be forgotten and we call on Angela Eagle to withdraw her leadership challenge.

 


1 comment

One response to “The meaning of the May ‘victory’”

  1. Jenny Haggard says:

    Agree. I am extremely concerned about what is happening.


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